FAFSA and CSS Profile: what each form is and who needs them
By Farouk Yahaya · 5 October 2026
Applying for financial aid at a US college usually means one or both of two forms. The FAFSA is the federal government’s application. The CSS Profile is run by College Board and used by colleges and scholarship programmes to hand out their own money. They open on the same day and are easy to confuse, but they lead to different pots of aid.
This guide covers the 2027-28 cycle, meaning aid for the academic year that starts in autumn 2027. Dates and fees below were checked on the official sites on 5 October 2026.
The two forms side by side
| FAFSA | CSS Profile | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Free Application for Federal Student Aid | CSS Profile |
| Run by | US Department of Education (Federal Student Aid) | College Board |
| Leads to | Federal aid, plus state and college aid that relies on FAFSA data | Non-federal aid from colleges and scholarship programmes |
| Who can get aid through it | US citizens and eligible noncitizens | Depends on the college; many use it for international applicants too |
| Cost | Free | $25 for the first college, $16 for each additional one, unless you get a fee waiver |
| Opens for 2027-28 | 1 October 2026 | 1 October 2026 |
| Deadline | Federal: 30 June 2028. States and colleges set earlier ones | Set by each college or programme |
| Where | studentaid.gov | cssprofile.collegeboard.org |
What the FAFSA is for
The FAFSA is how you apply for federal grants, work-study and federal loans. States and colleges also use its information to award their own grants and scholarships.
Eligibility for federal aid depends on citizenship status. You qualify if you are a US citizen or an “eligible noncitizen”, a group defined on studentaid.gov’s page for non-US citizens (checked 5 October 2026). It includes green card holders, refugees, people granted asylum and certain other categories.
The same page is direct about students on study visas: if you are in the US on an F-1, F-2 or M-1 student visa, or a J-1 or J-2 exchange visitor visa, you are not an eligible noncitizen and cannot receive federal student aid. Your parents’ citizenship, on the other hand, does not affect your eligibility, and the form does not ask about it. A US citizen who grew up in Canada, Ghana or Singapore with non-citizen parents can still file.
What the FAFSA asks for:
- a StudentAid.gov account for you and for each “contributor” (usually a parent, or a spouse); studentaid.gov notes that a Social Security number is needed to create the account for the online form
- your citizenship status
- consent from you and every contributor for the Department of Education to obtain federal tax information from the IRS
- income from the 2025 tax year for the 2027-28 form, and asset information where required
What the CSS Profile is for
The CSS Profile is an online application that colleges and scholarship programmes use to award non-federal institutional aid. College Board says it is used by hundreds of colleges, universities, professional schools and scholarship programmes, and its homepage puts the aid it gives access to at more than $14 billion a year (checked 5 October 2026). It does not list a single total count; instead it publishes a list of participating institutions and programmes, which is the place to check your own colleges.
It goes deeper than the FAFSA into family income, assets and expenses, and some colleges ask divorced or separated parents to complete separate applications. College Board suggests having to hand your most recent tax returns, W-2 forms or other records of this year’s income, records of untaxed income and benefits, details of assets, and bank statements. After you submit, a college may ask you to upload documents through College Board’s IDOC service.
If you are an international student
For most international applicants the CSS Profile, not the FAFSA, is the form that matters. College Board’s international applicants page says many colleges give institutional aid to international students and use the Profile to understand a family’s finances in the context of the local economy. Families can enter amounts in their home currency and the system converts them. You also consent to your data being transferred to the US when you submit.
Not every college that funds international students uses the CSS Profile. If a college you are applying to is not on the participating list, its financial aid office will tell you which form it wants instead. And because you are not eligible for federal aid on an F-1 or J-1 visa, there is usually no reason to file a FAFSA unless a college asks you to.
The CSS Profile is free for undergraduates living in the US whose family adjusted gross income is up to $100,000, who qualified for an SAT fee waiver, or who are orphans or wards of the court under 24. A dependent student's custodial parents must live in the US or a US territory to get a waiver, so most international families pay. Sending the Profile to five colleges, for example, would cost $25 plus four times $16, which is $89. See the fee waiver page and the cost page (both checked 5 October 2026).
At graduate level, much of the money for international students comes through assistantships and outside awards rather than either form. Our guide to studying in the United States explains how that works, and the Fulbright Foreign Student Program is one route that funds graduate study in the US for applicants from many countries.
Dates for the 2027-28 cycle
Both forms run on the same academic-year cycle and must be completed again each year you want aid.
- 1 October 2026The 2027-28 FAFSA can be submitted from this date (studentaid.gov states that the form is now available). The CSS Profile opens on 1 October each year, and its sign-in for Fall 2027/Spring 2028 is live.
- Two weeks before your first deadlineCollege Board advises starting the CSS Profile at least two weeks before the earliest college or scholarship priority date on your list, which leaves time to gather documents and involve parents.
- Autumn 2026 to spring 2027College and state deadlines fall here. Each college sets its own, often linked to its early or regular admission round. Some state FAFSA deadlines are early: Connecticut's priority date is 15 February 2027 and Maryland's for its Educational Excellence Awards is 1 March 2027, for example.
- After you submitWatch for requests to upload documents through IDOC or to correct your FAFSA. Missing these can hold up an aid offer.
- 30 June 2028Federal deadline to submit the 2027-28 FAFSA (11:59 pm Central time). Corrections are due by 12 September 2028.
The federal dates come from the FAFSA deadlines page and the official 2027-28 form, checked 5 October 2026.
Who files which
- US citizen or eligible noncitizen, applying to colleges that only use the FAFSA: file the FAFSA.
- US citizen or eligible noncitizen, applying to at least one CSS Profile college: file both, sending the Profile only to the colleges and programmes that require it.
- International student on an F-1 or J-1 visa: file the CSS Profile or the college’s own form for each college that offers you institutional aid. The FAFSA is not normally needed.
- US citizen living abroad: you can file the FAFSA, but you will not get a CSS Profile fee waiver while your custodial parents live outside the US.
Common mistakes
Do
- Check each college's aid page for the exact forms and deadlines it wants, and write them down in one place.
- Use the official sites only. The FAFSA is free and is filed at studentaid.gov.
- Start early enough for parents to find tax records, especially if they file taxes outside the US.
Don't
- Assume the federal June 2028 deadline is the one that counts. College and state dates are much earlier.
- Send the CSS Profile to colleges that do not use it. Each extra report costs $16.
- Pay a third-party website to file the FAFSA for you. See our guide on avoiding scholarship scams.
- File the FAFSA on a student visa expecting federal grants. Federal aid is not available to F-1 or J-1 students.
If the aid a college offers does not cover your costs, look at our guide to funding your studies without a full scholarship for other ways to close the gap.